president obama's management style. and we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. ♪ good morning. today in "the new york times," the president prepares for major foreign-policy address. he will face the class of 2014 west point on wednesday. the shooting took place in santa barbara but killed six and wounded more than a dozen, and in recess for the memorial day holiday, the house returns on wednesday. we will begin with the topic that is the subject of a new book and an op-ed today in "the new york times." 20 war on drugs. and

host: you can also join us on tweet, and send us a at theail is as we look war on drugs -- e-mail is [captioning performed by national captioning institute] .- e-mail is journal@c-span.org drugs,ok at the war on 38,000 people died in 2010 from drug overdose. we will get to your calls in just a moment, but first just a quick look at the other headlines this morning. the shooting that took place on friday evening, the killer, 22-year-old elliott roger, the

youtube videos getting a lot of attention over the weekend. this is the scene from the car as on liquor -- onlookers look at exactly what happened as the student dies of the gunshot after killing six and wounding 13 in santa barbara, california. this memorial day weekend, the subject of this front page story from the orange county ."gister, "points of honor monuments offering a setting for memorial day reflections. and there was this story from "the pittsburgh post-gazette." "the greatest generation, quickly vanishing." one million of 60 million world war ii veterans remain alive. and as a congressman fights for his place in history, not on the ballot of a write in campaign as congressman john conyers fights for his place and the 26th of term in the house of representatives.

botticelli is with the white house drug policy council and he spoke recently about the war on drugs. he says we need to change our approach on how we deal with this issue. >> the office of national drug control policy sets the drunken stroll strategy that recognizes substance abuse as a public health issue. not solely for law enforcement. in 2010, the nation's drug overdose deaths accounted for more deaths than homicides or motor vehicle crashes. economic data from the department of justice indicates that illegal drug use alone in nation is him -- our at $179 billion. we all agree that it is time for new approach. the good news is that we are not entering this task blindly.

scientific research informs our decisions. this research has provided us with the knowledge that addiction is a disease of the breed that can be prevented, successfully treated, and from which people can recover. unfortunately, we often find ourselves locked in a counterproductive debate over extreme visions of drug policy in america. on one side people insisting on a law enforcement approach, arresting more users. on the other side, advocates lobbying for legalization as a silver bullet promise to fill state coffers would increase tax revenue. theseuth is, neither of extremes is guided by experience, compassion, and most important, scientific evidence. >> the director of the national white house drug council policy, "the war onech on drugs."

some of you are already weighing .n on our facebook page edward perkins says -- we will get to more of your calls and comments in just callowt. first, nancy with a quick look at the other saturday morning programs, guests and topics, all of which can be heard later today on c-span radio. >> good morning, steve. today, some of the topics on this memorial day weekend include veterans service and health care, today's vote in ukraine, and politics. you can hear rebroadcast of the programs you getting today at 1 as "meet the press was quote is preempted by formula one auto racing. replace today begin at 1 p.m. with "this week your code guests include general martin dempsey, , and former utah

republican governor, jon huntsman. at 2 p.m. eastern, fox news sunday with kelly ayotte, derek bennett, and tom day, of bugles across america. pence,ng with mike .ernie sanders, and westmore at 4 p.m., "face the nation," with john thune and richard blumenthal. finkel,zinger and david the author of "thank you for , the author of "brothers forever," and dr. ben carson. the sunday network tv talk shows are on c-span radio, rock you as . public service by c-span

they begin at 1 p.m. with "this "statefox news sunday," of the union," and finally at 4 p.m. "face the nation." listened to them in the washington, d.c. area on fm radio, and on satellite radio channel 120. you can also listen online at c-span.org. >> you can follow c-span radio on twitter as well. a related editorial this morning from "the new york times," mass incarceration related to the war on drugs, researchers from across multiple disciplines have issued reports on the widespread societal and economic damage caused by america's no forty-year experiment and of its up best numbers citizens, pointing out the severity in the devastation on

the poorest and least educated, destroying neighborhoods and families. from 1980 through 2000, the number of children with fathers in prison rose from 300 and 50,000 to 2.1 million. host: that this morning is from "the new york times." has the u.s. lost the war on drugs? phone lines are open. host: when he testified before the sentencing commission, eric holder discussed this issue. here's more from the attorney general. [video clip]

too many cases result in too many americans going to prison for too long at times for no truly good law enforcement reason. although the united states comprises just five percent of the world's population, we incarcerate almost one quarter of the world's prisoners. one in 28 american children currently has a parent behind bars. state and federal governments and a combined $80 billion on incarceration in 2010 alone. as you know, of the more than 200 and 16,000 current auto inmates, fully half our serving time for drug-related crimes. this focus relies on incarceration and is not just financially unsustainable, it comes at a human and moral cost that is impossible to calculate. host: the attorney general, eric

holder, testifying before the u.s. senate commission. on our facebook page, others are weighing in. from roxanne -- we saw an opinion piece entitled "time to rethink the war on drugs." that the estimates sale of illicit drugs comes as one measure of the effectiveness of drug policy. there is the human cost of

violence, human rights abuses, infectious diseases, and mass incarceration to consider. how bad is it? the london school of economics this week published a report that attempted to quantify these consequences. the report has been endorsed by five nobel prize-winning economists who write that it is time to end the war on drugs and massively redirect resources towards effective evidence-based policies underpinned by rigorous economic analysis." that is this morning from cnn.com. steve, good morning. actually, we are going to bobby first, from urbana, illinois. as far as the war on drugs, the police are always looking for drug offenders in the black neighborhood, but they never go into the white neighborhoods. there is like zero affect. want to have a war on drugs? go ahead and have -- there is a

friend of mine that i know personally, they got them on a felony. he could not even get a job. for over a year he tried to get a job. he could not get a job because he had a felony. every job application, they always look at the person's record. deny him a job. this is not fair. the war on drugs is not working, it has never worked. it is a war on black people. the call.k you for agree or disagree? have we lost the war touch and mark that is our question this morning. steve, oklahoma, independent line, thank you for waiting. morning.ood i disagree with bobby. he is making it a race issue. what is going to happen? is this the job, slinging dope?

what will happen when they legalize it? according to bobby, that is the only job he can get. host: thank you for the call. one of the more well-known public service announcements focused on the war on drugs was released about one decade ago. [video clip] >> anyway out there who still is not clear about what doing drugs does? ok, last time. this is your brain. this is drugs. this is your brain on drugs. any questions? how are we doing today on the war on drugs? rob joins us from paris, pennsylvania. i would like to comment on the war on drugs.

the talk shows all seem to say that it comes from poverty, poor cities.hoods, big i kind of disagree with that. i know people from appalachia. there hast 75 years been no poorer place. those people there are not robbing people to buy drugs, robbing stores at gunpoint, home invasions, burglarizing homes? those people are poor as anyone else, if not worse off. drugs down there, but nothing near the big city. i disagree with poor people and poverty as the answer to the war on drugs. thank you. thank you for the call. pbs has put together a forty-year timeline on the drug issue, starting in the 1960's,

when drugs became prevalent during the vietnam war and the creation of the drug enforcement agency to nancy reagan just say no campaign in the 1980's and the three strikes and you are out from the 1990's. 40 years of the war on drugs, available online at the pbs news website. kentucky.om ashland, steve, republican line, good morning. maybe there is a reason we went into the war on drugs. century,e 19th reaching back a ways, you could walk into a general store and or cocainecaine containing products, opiate products, right across the counter with no control whatsoever.

we have a lot of problems with and fatalities. so, we decided to regulate those rugs. now, has the war on drugs been lost? we are -- we can't compete with the money involved. one of the best things we can do is what law enforcement does now, to confiscate drug money and drug vehicles to use in the war on drugs. they give for the call. from joe -- a pointe caller made

about the regulation of drugs. "washington journal" hits the road next month, traveling to and washingtono, state, two states that now allow for the use of marijuana in many parts of the state. we will focus on that issue, and aroundn general the country, next month on "washington journal." bob joins us from wendell, massachusetts. good morning. you're on the air. caller: i thoughts were that since i am part of the marijuana and moonshine party, we decided to call it the marijuana moonshine regime instead, because we don't want to beat around the bush about it erie it in any case, we would like to see the dea come out and say -- we have pulled up the last barrel. you don't have to worry about the cannabis plants in the world anymore.

they can't and they haven't been able to pull up the last marijuana plant. just seems like -- you ought to throw in the towel on that one. the planet itself -- the plant itself has a lot more uses than what the misinformed and undereducated -- they don't understand that the marijuana uses thanway more calling it just a drug. the dea, joseph red is beforecently testified the drug enforcement agency. this is what he had to say. [video clip] to 2012, there was a staggering increase in drug analysis and opioid pain medications. a 205% increase for oxycodone -- oxycodone, hydrocodone, and

morphine. there has also been a significant increase in heroin. >> read that again. >> this comes from lab information data. from 2001 to 2012 we saw an increased analysis of hydrocodone. . 275% increase in oxycodone >> what his analysis? >> when a drug is submitted for analysis, it is usually seized pursuant to arrest or purchased undercover. it shows cases that were moving from standard drug cases over to the increase in cases related to prescription drugs. across theses occur country. if an undercover agent or officer, a local county sheriff's department, makes a purchase under cover of oxycodone, he submits that for analysis and we get the reports. >> so what, it has tripled?

that's the figure? over 11ive percent years. >> what do you deduce from that? >> that we have a major prescription drug problem and it is just getting worse. host: the deputy dea administrator testifying on , questions coming from senator dianne feinstein as we focus on the issue of the war on drugs. this question -- has the u.s. lost that war? thatve a map of the states allow marijuana use, either medical marijuana, the states in orange, or two states, colorado or washington state, have legalized marijuana for recreational and medical use. there are initiatives in other states, including alaska and florida, in this midterm election year. you can check out a look at marijuana laws online at cnn.com. ohio, democratic line, good morning.

i would like to mention the fact that the koch brothers, if they were investigated for transparency and credibility, they could have packages sent through ups. they told us that on tv on "national geographic." i believe that the koch brothers to buy a president and by a governor. where are they getting all of their money? i believe that if they look into the koch brothers, they will find out that they are bringing the united states down through drugs so that it will become a communist nation. host: from jan -- will likelych that

get a lot of attention this week, with lawmakers out of town, although the house is out on wednesday, mark has a preview from "the new york times" this morning, the speech from west tont, the president seeking answer criticisms that he has forsaken america's leadership lay out alans to retooled foreign-policy agenda that could deepen the nation's involvement in syria, steering clear of major military conflicts in the commencement address. the president will seek yet again to articulate his view of the proper american response to a cascade of crises, "from civil war to the russian incursion in , admitting the white house has been anguished over months over the situation in syria."

from inside "the new york times." martinsburg, west virginia, republican line, good morning. regarding this drug issue in the united states? we will see it move from marijuana to heroin and other things. prescriptions will become more readily available and readily

, psychologistsns and whatnot, wanting to prescribe more easily. u.s. citizens tend to want to accept that something is wrong and it must be medicated. that seems to be a big trend. i have worked with several police departments. on the small-scale side, individually like law enforcement they tend to go after the bigger fish. even though they might find that to be somewhat effective, they are overlooking small people , like a using it 30-year-old female with two children less than 10 years old, one was 7, 1 was for. the 30-year-old female was dealing heroin to her next-door a 10-year-oldhad

son. she had the 10-year-old son going and getting the heroin for her and bringing it to the house . i brought this to the attention of the state police department here. nothing was done. they were looking for larger fish. i said -- you have three children involved in heroin use. they did not want to go after it . another sting operation with another man trying to fill prescription pills. than a it was less certain amount, they did not want to pursue it. this is all in the greater martinsburg, west virginia, area? caller: yes. host: do you find that this is different in smaller communities versus larger cities? i do, demographically, differences in population density.

have lived in tons of places throughout the u.s., rural and metropolitan. general suburbia. in metropolitan areas there are higher uses of prescription and in rural areas you get more marijuana use, typically. demographically there are differences and the way they are guess they use their statistical data to see -- ok, what is our largest problem, then they try to attack it. bunch of law enforcement agencies with tunnel vision, narrowmindedness. they want to take a large problem and ignore the smaller thank you very much for sharing your experiences. if you are just joining us, we are focusing on "-- on the war on drugs. has the u.s. lost that war?

jim, responding to an earlier caller -- this from "cq weekly," a cover story focusing on climate change this week -- is joining us rubble turkey, new mexico. caller: i just wanted to say that the war on drugs has always enabled criminal activity. look back to prohibition, when alcohol was illegal. it gave rise to the al capone's and gangsters in the prohibition era who thrived on that market. the war on drugs has given rise to the mexican cartels, the drug

cartels, and even homebred criminals who -- it makes no get tothe big fish prosper because they are high rollers. they get caught, they have money for lawyers, it never affects them. but the stories about young people, the drug users, that is who the war is affecting the worse. these people do not have the money and resources to fight for themselves. the kid, 20 four years old, gets caught with a joint? criminal record, can't get a job because he smoked a joint. he got caught with some cocaine he night, he got caught, can't get a job. his whole life is affected for the rest of his life. i think the war on drugs has failed. it has always been a failure. the only thing it does is oppress people. you know, drugs are something where someone hurts themselves.

cocaine, marijuana, people using them are hurting themselves, to me that is a medical issue. they should be given treatment, counseling, not criminal records for the rest of their lives. thank you very much for the call. a couple of political notes, "the weekly standard," focusing on hillary clinton, moving onto her first network interview next month. her democratic challengers are likely to fall short, one of them mentioned is senator bernie sanders of vermont, an independent, "making noises about running in 2016." he is our guest on "newsmakers --r ago you can watch it newsmakers." you can watch it at 10 a.m. eastern. from inside "the new york times," jeb bush, "giving the gop something to sit -- something to think about."

a look at the number of books he has been reading in recent weeks . "the new republic," focusing on the issue of the war on drugs. a new book from robert ferguson ,etting a lot of attention "america's criminal justice

."stem is broken "incarceration rates have risen 500%, sentences are harsh, life inside is dangerous, rehabilitation programs are .neffective the only real solution is to reduce the number of prisoners, a solution blocked by american culture, which she believes to be excessively punitive and largely responsible for the immensity of the prison population. we have more on this online at "new republic." larry, democratic line, welcome. you mentioned 38,000 people overdosing in 2010, but you don't do friendship between legal and illegal. i don't think that anyone died

from marijuana in there, which is what we are talking about. must be theothers world's biggest drug dealers, they have already had people calling in to defend them. back in to understand, the 1970's it cost $100,000 for a pilot to fly to the caribbean to pick up drugs and bring it back. are you trying to convince me that people in the projects are selling their food stamps and all of their resources to finance operations like that? you know it has to be a doctor. you know it has to be a lawyer, a judge, somebody with some kind of resources or financing. this is an expensive proposition. reaganprobably ronald when he was dealing with the iran-contra. drugs have been around so long, even a lot of theologians say that the opiates of the biblical days for what people were saying

-- seeing instead of miracles. they were delusions. an ongoing issue that will probably be here for another 5000 years. larry, thank you very much. a new poll showing that for the first time, a majority of americans now support legalizing marijuana. the poll is available on the pew website, saying that the majority of americans favor legalizing marijuana, 52% saying that the use of marijuana should be made legal, 45% saying no. steve has this point on his twitter page -- in an addressst: that was delivered last month, one of his annual justice department website addresses, eric holder talked about the war on drugs and the high prison population as a direct result of being tough on these drug crimes

. here is more with "the attorney general -- your is low -- here is more with the attorney general. [video clip] >> there are still too many people in front -- and federal prisons who are sentenced under the old regime and who, as a result, must spend far more time in prison than they would if they were sentenced today for exactly the same crime. this is simply not right. wouldssional legislation help to address these types of cases. in the meantime, the president took a sensible step towards addressing the situation last december. eight men and women who had each ant 15 years in prison for cocaine offenses, for two of these individuals it was the first conviction they had ever mandatoryyet due to minimum guidelines that were considered severity time, profoundly out of date today,

they and four others received life sentences. these stories indicate the vital role that the clemency process can play in the justice system. >> the statement by the attorney statement by the attorney general, available annually from the department of justice website. pat, west virginia, democratic line, good morning. i like to call and on sundays and bring things to the attention of people. he condemned the people in power for being hypocrites. now, i say that because we have three presidents, the last three presidents that have admitted to drug use as marijuana smokers. --y are still in the job of putting people in jail for smoking or one, despite the fact

that they did it themselves. this kind of hypocrisy is the reason our youth have turned away from our country and our politics. want to be involved in voting or anything that has to do with our government, because we no longer follow the same laws that we oppress our people with. host: thank you for the call. other viewers saying -- host: the speech was delivered earlier this month. from a top senate republican, rob portman called the president's clemency plan a band-aid on a deep wound. he delivered the speech earlier this month, saying we needed to put an end to the war on drugs and deal with the american prison population.

with ak, "daily beast," piece from john collins. in his assessment, and an essay titled "ending the war on drugs," it says "there is no single approach or way to fix it. the drug war has not worked." west palm beach, florida, the line for republicans. good morning. i am calling to say that we should tax all the drugs. tax at all. just like we do with medicine. the people i can afford it, let them have it. don't put them in jail. in the jail let them out, let everybody on.

then put them back in the jail. host: a new survey is out, looking at the most generous and least generous states, we thought we would share it with you. it points out that the most generous states, -- host: you can check out the list online at washington post.com.

rosalie, good morning. caller: what, exactly, is the war on drugs? most importantly, i think the increase in the use of drugs is linked very closely to poverty. to young people who have no money, no jobs, no way of making money, they see a friend of theirs down the street selling drugs with a nice car, gets intos -- so, he selling drugs because he has no other way to make money. so that peoplebs don't have to go sell drugs to earn a living. thank you for the call. arthur, good morning.

rampant,rugs are so trying to legalize it? that would be the best thing to do. that would be a great thing, i otherwise the people on the top just get rich and richer. drugs are going to be around forever. they don't want to win the war on drugs. arthur, thank you for the call. brock is joining us next. welcome to the conversation. .aller: good morning i would like to let the folks know that the u.s. government

has definitely lost the war on drugs. it is now embedded into the souls of every human, whoever , definitely the main point is that the in itself is a drug and it definitely needs to be cleansed out of people's minds peacefully. people just need to realize that drugs are bad and that the government is also supporting, through commercials and through a lot of their information about getting people in schools to eat unhealthy food and do drugs and stuff, they use it in the hip-hop culture, a lot of that is just making people think that they need to do drugs, whether it is legal drugs or not. i definitely just hope that people will understand that the government is supporting people

to do drugs. thank you very much. from our facebook page -- can join in there at facebook.com/c-span. sanders,ernie independent of vermont, the chair of the senate foreign affairs committee, he held a hearing this month that included eric shinseki, saying that there is a growing chorus among some , talking aboutgn the problems in phoenix, arizona, and other facilities around the country -- this question -- should the be a secretary be fired or resign? >> should the leader of the veteran,t, a vietnam resign or be fired? >> no. >> that from senator bernie sanders. the full interview is available

on our website. leon is joining us from the bronx. good morning. caller: drugs should be illegal. but you legal drugs are cocaine, things like that. but the merrill went -- the marijuana plant, we need to leave that here for the younger generation. it is too powerful, it cannot be killed. we tried everything and we cannot kill it, so we should just leave it alone. it is a holy plant. it cannot be killed unless you can stop it from coming, which we cannot do. when will we realize that that plan is more powerful than america and its allies put together?

thank you for the call. some figures according to drug policy.org. people arrested in 2012, the most recent figures on nonviolent drug charges, a number of states allow drugs for medical marijuana use. 21 states, in fact. dave humphrey has this point on our twitter page -- host: the next call comes from charles in cincinnati. please turn down your set, otherwise we will hear feedback. caller: [indiscernible]

go ahead with your comment. is charles and my comment is simply that america needs to realize first that the start of all drugs and addiction to cigarettes, for that to be legal, people should be free to smoke marijuana. it is a way of life for me. it is not an addiction to me. i could quit at any time, but as far as any other drug, i do feel that they need to bar down on the people who are bringing the drugs into the country. legalizedshould be throughout the united states. thank you. the front page of "the new york times" this crimea, looking at people are in, tourists are out, the area